Elon Musk completes purchase for Twitter

Tech billionaire Elon Musk finalized his purchase of Twitter Oct. 27 and became the company’s private owner. The purchase has stirred controversy amongst many users and critics who are concerned with Musk’s stance on free speech and as well as his desire to reinstate previously banned accounts along with the future of Twitter.  

The purchase which was completed for over 44 million dollars saw a myriad of setbacks before the actual acquisition occurred. April 14 Musk made his bid of $54.20 per share, this action was met with concern from employees of Twitter who felt like the purchase would lead to a hostile takeover from Musk despite assurances from Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal that it would not change anything. 

On the same day of the purchase, three top-level Twitter officials were promptly fired and escorted from the main headquarters of the company. Both employees and opponents of the purchase have argued the dangers of allowing someone like Musk the power to control the platform. 

Musk has described himself as a free-speech absolutist who is against censorship that goes beyond the law and has argued that this purchase will combat what he perceived as Twitter’s overzealous moderation of tweets. 

With the pandemic still ongoing and misinformation in a constant state of conflict with government and health officials, there are some who are worried about the ever-changing state of the first amendment and the individuals who set the rules and boundaries for free speech. 

Musk attempted to quell fears of Twitter becoming an anarchic free for all in a tweet where he promised to create a moderation council that will include a diverse array of viewpoints. In the same tweet, he clarified that currently there has been no discussion over content changes or account reinstatements until said council has been formed. 

The account reinstatement is in reference to Musk saying he would lift the ban on Donald Trump’s Twitter account after the company suspended the former president’s account due to the events of Jan 6. Musk called the ban a mistake as he felt it alienated a large part of the American population. Musk announced Nov. 20 that Donald Trump would have his account reinstated.

Despite Musk’s reassurances, the limits of what is considered free speech were tested on the same day as the purchase. Users flooded Twitter with accounts heavily using the N-word. The Network Contagion Research Institute, which monitors instances of cyber-social threats reported in a tweet that usage of the N-word from accounts increased to 500% in a 12 hour period. 

Reports from Twitter employees describe the days following the acquisition as chaotic and ill-prepared. Musk gathered several human resource managers in an apparent war room situation to discuss mass layoffs of employees. In the following days, Musk reported that he had cut around 50% of Twitter’s staff including the Human Rights team, the Ethical AI team and half of Twitter’s communication team.  

The mass layoffs are thought to be in part to the financial pressure Musk is under from his purchase of Twitter. Along with brands halting advertisements on Twitter to review Musk’s ownership of the platform, Twitter seems to be in a state of potential bankruptcy despite assuring that the company will not experience bankruptcy. Recently Musk has ordered all employees to return to the main offices to continue work and will consider those who do not return as an automatic resignation from the company. 

“It seems that some advertisers have already started to leave the platform, but I do not anticipate that all advertisers will leave,” said Ivelina Pavlova-Stout, professor of finance. “Twitter’s business model currently relies heavily on advertising as its main source of revenue (data licensing is a much smaller source of revenue). Elon Musk is trying to change this model, so the company can potentially survive if some advertisers leave, but we are yet to see how successful that change will be.”

One of the more well-known controversies from this acquisition was the proposed subscription services for users to stay verified. For around $8 dollars users can become verified this was originally a privilege for high-end users to prevent impersonations. The aim of the new subscription service is to free the reliance of Twitter on advertisers. 

“Some projections from Forbes show that Twitter will need more than 64 million subscribers to survive without ad revenues,” said Stout. “In my opinion, most likely they won’t be able to get that many paid subscribers, so ad revenue will still have to be a source of income. I can’t imagine other social media platforms will become completely independent of advertising in the near future, Facebook especially.”

At the moment the state of Twitter is still up in the air. Many fear the potential free speech approach will only lead to hate speech and misinformation dominating the platform. Employees fear for their job security and the company may face financial hardships in the coming months due to this change in leadership.